“You cannot fully recovery unless you help the society that made you sick, recover.” New Jerusalem Now, a community of former addicts helping each other achieve a “fullness of life” formerly prevented by drug and alcohol abuse. From the residents’ narratives, you learn how they run their community within a community in one of the poorest neighborhoods in North Philadelphia, PA.

New Jerusalem Now was started by The Simple Way, a web of subversive friends conspiring to spread the vision of ‘Loving God, Loving People, and Following Jesus’ in our neighborhoods and in our world.

They are not just treating the people but building up the community. This is an important activity. Creating a healthy community will not eliminate drug and alcohol abuse but it will help both reduce the amount and reduce the impact of the abuse. Just as a healthy body can get sick and recovery quickly a healthy community can help people recovery more quickly than a sick community.

Related: Shane Claiborne: Interview with a New Monastic – Betty Ford Center – Finding Rehab Centers – New Owner Updating Celebrity Rehab Center, Promises

Beyoncé Opens Cosmetology Center at Phoenix House

The new Cosmetology Center will offer a seven-month cosmetology training course, helping our clients gain the career skills they need to lead productive, rewarding lives in recovery.
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Beyoncé spoke about meeting with women in treatment at Phoenix House while preparing for the role of Etta James in the 2008 film Cadillac Records. “Through their stories, I realized that all of us have our personal struggles and we all have something to overcome,” she said. “Drug addiction… has a stigma that must be removed. Addiction is a disease and these beautiful women I met did not choose to become addicts, but they have chosen to get better.”

Later donating her salary from the film, Beyoncé wanted to create a program that was geared toward women, “something that would teach them skills that would give them hope even after Phoenix House.” Together, she and her mother, who owned a popular hair salon in Houston when she was growing up, came up with the idea of our new cosmetology program.

As a child, she observed that her mother’s salon was a place for women to “share stories, cry, laugh, and get advice” – and she wanted to bring that experience the women at Phoenix House. “The first sign of recovery is caring about your appearance,” she said. “And hopefully, this Center will be a place that will change lots of lives every year.”

Photo by Hassy, 2009.

Related: Smokey Robinson Helping Fight Against Drug Addiction – Eminem’s ‘Relapse’ Explores His Drug Addition and Rehabilitation – Maradona Drug Rehab – Carrie Fisher’s Novel Explores Drug Addiction and Rehab

Promises Treatment Centers became famous for its Hollywood clientele, including starlets Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.
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Promises charges $38,500 for a 90-day stay at its West L.A. facility, while treatment at its Malibu location – with panoramic views of the ocean and perfectly manicured lawns – starts at $54,500 for a 31-day stay.
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Sack then turned his attention to improving the centers’ treatment programs. He started a service program where patients volunteer with organizations such as homeless veteran projects while they are being treated. He upgraded the staff and contracted with more licensed professionals who provide care in a wider range of areas, including post-traumatic stress disorder, sex addiction and other compulsive disorders.
Susan Blacksher, executive director of the California Association of Addiction Recovery Resources, said Sack is making the program better by not just treating a patient’s drug and alcohol issues.
“More and more, people of good programs are dealing with the entire person,” Blacksher said, “including an assessment of any underlying medical or psychiatric needs that could interfere with a person’s ability to stay with a commitment of a more sober lifestyle.”
A big part of Sack’s efforts have been focused on improving Promises’ follow-up care, which he said will help patients remain sober and allow staff members to better track information such as relapse rates.
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Promises started setting goals for discharged patients. They are now held responsible for attending 12-step meetings, finding a group home and sponsor, and remaining sober.
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He said the most recent data shows that 79 percent of Promises’ alumni were continuously sober for 90 days. The national relapse rate for that period is 40 percent to 60 percent, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Obviously the luxury addiction rehabilitation centers are out of the price range of most people. But the basic rehab strategies are the same as many other centers.

Related: Betty Ford Center – Rehab Center Reality Check – Should Rehab be Enjoyed?

Tiger Woods has greatly increased the focus on sex addiction recently. A few years ago, David Duchovny, of X-Files fame, rehabed to the Pine Grove Behavioral Health & Addiction Services Treatment for a sex addition. That is the same rehab center that Tiger Woods is rumored to be a patient at now.

Taking sex addiction seriously by Nicole Baute

Statistics claim that from 3 to 10 percent of Americans have a sex addiction, but the condition is not listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and not all experts agree that problematic sexual behaviour should be called an addiction at all.
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Vermeire describes sex addicts as people struggling with sexual compulsions they cannot stop, despite negative consequences.

The addiction is not limited to the rich and famous. In Toronto, there are therapists who specialize in sexual addiction and support groups like Sex Addicts Anonymous. Bellwood Health Services has a 12-week, $12,000 residential program and outpatient counselling.

Margaret Hicks, a Toronto psychotherapist and social worker, says the addiction is often about shame and low self-esteem. Sufferers are trying to fill a void in their lives, she says: “You can fill the hole with alcohol, you can fill it with drugs, you can fill it with sex.”

Hicks says Internet porn is increasingly driving the addiction, and exposure to certain types of porn can change a person’s sexual template in destructive ways.
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“Treatment for sexual addiction involves abandoning the unhealthy sexual behaviours and, after a period of abstinence, developing healthy sexual functioning with a primary partner – which often requires learning how to function in a healthy emotional way,” says Lawson, manager of family services and special programs at Bellwood.
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“With sex addictions we are sort of where the people supporting the idea of alcoholism were 50 years ago,” she says.

“When they started talking about alcohol addiction and being an alcoholic back then, there was the same reaction, ‘No way, there’s no such thing, what are you talking about?’ So, it takes time.”

Related: Brett Favre Overcomes Painkiller Addiction – Robin Williams Reflects on Rehab – Eva Mendes on Rehab

While alcohol was the major sole factor, Mr Pitts said 70 per cent of admissions also listed it as “among their reasons for seeking treatment” and this demonstrated how pervasive alcohol dependence had become across society. It was also viewed as an “easily accessible, socially acceptable and relatively inexpensive drug to self-medicate life’s difficulties and challenges for older people”, he said.

Amphetamine-type substances including ice and ecstasy accounted for 21% of Odyssey House admissions in 2009 (23% in 2008), while heroin and cannabis each accounted for 18% (19% and 18% respectively in 2008).

Methadone accounted for 8% of admissions, while gambling and other drugs like benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, morphine and cocaine accounted for 9%.

Alcoholism remains a huge problem. Rehabilitation programs for those with addictions to alcohol continue to have success but they also continue to have plenty of people in need of treatment. It is not a problem that society has been effective at dealing with. While we have some success there remains much to do.

Related: Top 10 Luxury Rehab Centers – Combination Strategy to Treat Alcohol Dependence – Alcohol Remains a Major Cause of Drug Rehab Admissions

After 50 years, Smokey Robinson is still having fun

I speak at schools, churches, gang meetings, rehab facilities, telling people that drugs don’t discriminate. I was 39 years old and my life was going exactly as I would have it go. I couldn’t have written it any better. But drugs don’t care who you are, what you’re doing, where you are or where you’re going. When you open yourself up to them, you are vulnerable. And I was. You think drugs won’t get the best of you, that you will never become an addict. Ninety-nine percent of the people who start doing drugs do so with their friends. It’s a social thing and you call yourself having fun. Then you look up and fun has wiped you out like it did me. I did it for two years. I was a walking corpse, totally out of it.

Drugs are also a spiritual condition. If you don’t get your spiritual self together, you’ll never conquer them. I went to church and was prayed for; I gave it to God. I went to church one night a drug addict and when I came out of that church, I was free. That was May 1986. I haven’t even thought about drugs since then other than that I’m at war with them.

As Smokey Robinson shows not everyone needs rehab to remove drugs from their lives but many do. He has devoted himself to helping those that are struggling with drug addiction. And that is what those with drug problems need – a helping hand and allies to tell help them improve their lives.

Photo by jcrawford

Related: Piano Man Rehab – Winehouse to Rehab: Yes, Yes, Yes – Why Can’t Drug Addicts Quit on Their Own?

Photo of United States Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (son of Senator Ted Kennedy) at the ADA rally at the Capitol, 17 September 2008.

Rep. Kennedy returns to Congress after month in rehab

After a four-week course of addiction treatment, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy returned to Congress Wednesday with what he called “excellent” prospects for long-term sobriety – in large part because he sought help before he landed in the kind of trouble that has brought him criticism in the past.
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In May 2006, a late-night car crash on Capitol Hill attracted harsh publicity and prompted Kennedy to enter an addition treatment facility and to acknowledge that he had been an alcoholic and drug addict for most of his adult life. Since then Kennedy had become a public face for recovery from addiction.

On June 12, Kennedy announced through his office that he had left the House for an indefinite period of time to enter a treatment facility. He has since disclosed that he underwent a 28-day treatment regime at Father Martin’s Ashley, a Maryland center well-known in recovery circles.
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Kennedy said Wednesday that he hopes his decision to seek treatment was another “sign to people that this is a chronic illness not unlike a cancer that goes into remission but then becomes malignant again.”

He said, “This is a chronic illness that needs lifelong attention. You can’t ever be cured of it. It needs to be monitored on a day-to-day basis for your whole life.”

Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy Statement on His Drug Addiction (May 2006)

Over my 15 years in public life, I’ve felt a responsibility to speak honestly and openly about my challenges with addiction and depression. I’ve been fighting this chronic disease since I was a young man, and have aggressively and periodically sought treatment so that I can live a full and productive life. I struggle every day with this disease, as do millions of Americans. I’ve dedicated my public service to raising awareness about the chronic disease of addiction, and have fought to increase access to care and recovery supports for the too many Americans forced to struggle on their own.

This past Christmas, I realized that I had to seek help again so checked myself into the Mayo Clinic for addiction to prescription pain medication.
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I am deeply concerned about my reaction to the medication and my lack of knowledge of the accident that evening. But I do know enough to know that I need to seek expert help. This afternoon, I’m traveling to Minnesota to seek treatment at the Mayo Clinic to ensure I can continue on my road to recovery.

Related: Cindy McCain Drug Rehab – Brett Favre Overcomes Painkiller Addiction – Drug Rehab Centers in California – Top 10 Luxury Rehab Centers

Green-Milon’s apparent success in overcoming her addictions is all too rare, experts say. Only about a tenth of the 24 million Americans who need drug treatment get it, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and at least half of them relapse.

Part of the challenge, scientists say, is that addiction, like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, is a chronic condition; it changes the chemistry of the brain. But there’s another hurdle that’s getting attention: treatment programs, with their voice-mail systems and multiple forms to fill out, aren’t very patient-friendly, especially to people whose lives present many barriers to staying in treatment.

A national program, based at UW-Madison, is trying to change that by bringing process improvements to drug treatment. The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, or NIATx, attempts to get addicts into treatment quicker and retain more of them by making the programs more appealing.
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24 million Americans need treatment for illicit drug or alcohol problems.
2.5 million get the treatment they need.
The economic cost of substance abuse exceeds $500 billion a year (including alcohol and tobacco; for just illicit drugs, it’s $181 billion).

The NIATx (formerly know as the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is focused on improving the success of addition treatment.

Use what you learned in Walk-through exercises (See the NIATx Conducting a Walk-through guide for guidance) to identify problems in processes within your organization from the clients’ point of view. Consider changes to test based on that experience. Prior to starting, you should decide the parameters of the change project, including where (e.g., location) you wish to introduce the change, as well which clients (e.g., level of care, population) you expect to impact.

The PDSA Cycle is an efficient way to learn what will work in your organization, and should be the foundation of every change you make. The PDSA Cycle begins with a Plan, and ends with Action based on the learning gained from the Plan, Do, and Study phases of the cycle

They also offer many case studies on improvement successes by treatment centers.

Related: How Effective is Drug Addiction Treatment? – Center for Substance Abuse Treatment – Methods to Treat Addiction

The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts is a book exploring an experiment to deal with addicted criminals.

The farm was the first place to look at drug addicts as patients that were in need of treatment instead of criminals in need of punishment. The farm did experiments to learn about addiction including on methadone (which is commonly used to try and ease the transition from narcotic addition today). Certainly the methods practiced on the farm were of debatable ethical ground however there was a great deal of learning and desire to learn and treat drug addition.

From 1935 until 1975, just about every junkie busted for dope went to the Narcotic Farm. Equal parts federal prison, treatment center, farm, and research laboratory, the Farm was designed to rehabilitate addicts and help researchers discover a cure for drug addiction. Although it began as a bold and ambitious public works project, and became famous as a rehabilitation center frequented by great jazz musicians among others, the Farm was shut down forty years after it opened amid scandal over its drug-testing program, which involved experiments where inmates were being used as human guinea pigs and rewarded with heroin and cocaine for their efforts.

Published to coincide with a documentary to be aired on PBS, The Narcotic Farm includes rare and unpublished photographs, film stills, newspaper and magazine clippings, government documents, as well as interviews, writings, and anecdotes from the prisoners, doctors, and guards that trace the Farm’s noble rise and tumultuous fall, revealing the compelling story of what really happened inside the prison walls.

Listen to an NPR podcast on America’s First Drug-Treatment Prison

Related: How Effective is Drug Addiction Treatment? – Drug Rehabilitation Centers in California – Why Can’t Drug Addicts Quit on Their Own?

Masekela’s message for ‘addictive’ SA

One of the biggest names in world music – trumpeter Hugh Masekela – has said the message behind his latest album Time is to help the fight against drug and alcohol addiction in his native South Africa.

Masekela himself is a recovering addict, having gone into rehabilitation six years ago before establishing an organisation to help those with similar problems in his homeland. And he told BBC World Service’s The Ticket programme that he felt a duty to help others suffering from the same problems.
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“I myself am a recovering addict and alcoholic. Six years ago I came to England, took up counselling, and learned the psychology of addiction.”

Drug-busting Masekela calls a brave new tune

The project, called the Musicians and Artists Assistance Programme of South Africa (Maapsa), is a partnership between several South African celebrities, including musicians Jabu Khanyile and Family Factory, actress Connie Masilo and talkshow host Felicia Mabuza-Suttle. Masekela said: “This organisation will make South Africans aware that addiction is a dynamite powder-keg. In South Africa, people are often praised for being able to drink a lot. They think drinking is something to be proud of.”
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Victor Ntoni, another respected musician, said alcohol and substance abuse among musicians was exacerbated by the increasing exploitation of artists in South Africa.
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Mabuza-Suttle, one of the trustees of Maapsa, said that because she came from a background of alcoholism, she knew about the devastating effects of addiction on families.

Hugh Masekela Biography

As the brutality of the Apartheid state increased, Hugh finally left the country with the help of Trevor Huddleston and his friends Yehudi Menuhin and Johnny Dankworth who got him admitted into London’s Guildhall School of music. Miriam Makeba who was already enjoying major success in the USA later helped him with Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillepsie and John Mehegan to get admission to the Manhattan school of Music in New York. Hugh finally met Louis Armstrong who had sent the Huddleston Band a trumpet after Huddleston told the trumpet king about the bank he helped start back in South Africa before deportation.

With immense help from Makeba and Belafonte, Hugh eventually began to record, gaining his first breakthrough with “The Americanization of Ooga-Booga” produced by the late Tom Wilson who had been producer of Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel’s debut successes. Stewart Levine his business partner in Chissa Records went on to produce hit records for Hugh on Uni Records, beginning with “Alive and Well at the Whisky” in 1967 and then “”Promise of A Future” which contained the gigantic hit song “Grazing in the Grass” in 1968.

By the beginning of the 1970’s he had attained international fame, selling out all of America’s festivals, auditoriums and top nightclubs. Heeding the call of his African roots, he moved to Guinea, then Liberia and Ghana after recording the historical “ Home is where Music is” with Dudu Pokwana.

photo from Ritmo Artists

Related: Winehouse to Rehab – Yes, Yes, Yes – Eva Mendes on Rehab